Dinner for Under £10 - Slow Cookers, Braising Steak and Wine

Home cooking does not necessarily mean slaving away over a stove – with 15 or 20 minutes preparation you can create a tasty meal that is left to simmer in a slow cooker. Food that has been slowly cooked is packed with flavour and once a Slow Cooker is turned on the food can be left to gently bubble unattended. Slow Cookers were first introduced in the 1970s, but due to the recession they are now shedding their retro image and have come back into fashion. Slow Cookers only use the same amount of electricity as a light bulb and are perfect for transforming cheaper cuts of meat into tender dishes. Tesco alone is seeing 12,000 of the appliances fly of its shelves every week, while John Lewis and Morphy Richards have seen sales grow 64% and 16.4% respectively since last year.

Cheaper cuts of meat with connective tissue and lean muscle fibre are suitable for stewing, and make better stews than expensive cuts as slow cooking softens the connective tissue and gelatinises it. Apart from making melt in the mouth casseroles Slow Cookers can be used to steam puddings and fish.

A good tip with Slow Cooking is to use herbs and spices that release their flavour slowly so that it doesn't disappear over the long cooking time ie instead of grinding peppercorns, crush them in a mortar so they release their flavour slowly as the dish cooks. So too with, seeds such as cumin, fennel, coriander. With rosemary and thyme, use the fresh version but toss the whole stem in, along with the leaves. The stem cooks slowly, releasing flavour and keeping the dish seasoned. You can add spices such as fresh chillies at the end of the cooking time, and just cook them long enough for the flavours to meld.

Curries are lovely when slow cooked and here is a great recipe:

Malaysian Beef Curry

1 lb braising steak, diced
1 onion
4 garlic cloves
2 tbsp olive oil
1 aubergine, cut into chunks
2 tbsp Thai curry paste
2 star anise
1 tbsp fish sauce
1can coconut milk

Set the temperature on the Slow Cooker to Low. Finely chop the onion and garlic, heat the oil in a frying pan, add the onion and garlic and fry till soft. Add the beef and aubergine and fry until browned. Stir in the curry paste, fish sauce, star anise and coconut milk and bring to the boil. Transfer to the Slow Cooker. Cover with the lid and cook on Low for 8 – 9 hours until the meat is tender.

Recommended wines to go with your curry are the red Brissonet (£3.08) which always pairs beautifully with spicy Indian, Thai and Chinese dishes due to its lightness and fruitiness and the award winning Clairet de Chateau des Lisennes (£5.87). The Clairet (Bordeaux's own Rosé) is a fragrant, deep raspberry pink wine with violet reflections with raspberry, peach and spice overtones and being a medium to fuller bodied drink it lends itself very nicely to accompany many tropical and oriental dishes.